After the Epilogue
by Trannon1
Summary: Hinata wakes up after the events of Chapter 6. They decided to stay on Jabberwock Island to wait for their friends to wake up. And they did, one by one. Except the one whom Hinata wished for the most.


**A hypothetical story based on some facts I artfully interpreted into events in the game. I hope this logically makes sense. I wrote this because there needs to be more love for Chiaki and Hinata with an actual happy ending.**

I had been submerged in darkness for so long, then the darkness pulsed. I felt myself being pulled towards the light. I woke up. Confused and dazed, I looked around. I was in some sort of pod, with a bunch of tubes linked to it. Outside, I could see a brown-haired boy wearing a green jacket shouting to a blond cold-looking boy wearing glasses and a suit. Then the brown-haired boy opened the pod and asked a single question.

"Who are you?"

_Who am I?_

As I searched through my mind, I came up with the name Kamakura Izuru, but somewhere, I felt it was wrong and rejected it. Even so, that was the only name I could come up with, and I was about to speak. Then a sudden image came into my mind, that of a pink-haired girl who wore a cat-eared hoodie and had a half-asleep expression on her face looking at me. She called towards me with a name, and at that name, I felt a sense of happiness.

"Hajime Hinata."

From there, I remembered it all. The choice we had made in order to save the three who had dove into the system to save us. The deaths of my friends. The things I had done as Ultimate Despair. The fact that it was my fault that with the exception of Akane Owari, Kazuichi Souda, Sonia Nevermind, and Kuzuryuu Fuyuhiko, everyone was in a coma.

No, not everyone was in a coma. There was one person whom wasn't in a coma, one person whose death haunted me the most. The one I had been forced to kill because she wanted to protect everyone else, the person who trusted me with her feelings. The one whom was the traitor and revealed it, sacrificing herself to protect us. At the end, I was able to thank her, and yet, there was still something I had not been able to say.

* * *

Everyone else had already woken up a few days prior. Sonia was laughing at Kazuichi's attempt to challenge Akane to a juggling battle, which he was failing in an epic manner due to the physical prowess of Akane. Akane had starved herself as a result of Junko's death, but she was gaining her normal body by consuming large amounts of food. Fuyuhiko chuckled while he leaned against the wall, relaxed. He still wore a bandage around his eye, and it seemed that his wound in the Neo World was ironically the same eye he had transplanted Junko's eye into. It seems that all of them had remembered the despair, and yet they overcame it with hope. They had come to terms with the fact that their friends were likely to never wake up, but they decided that they will wait.

Sonia went into the pod room every day to gaze upon her friends, but most of all, she gazed upon Gundham, whom she finally formed a friendship with only for him to heroically sacrifice himself to save everyone. Akane looked upon Nekomaru and remember how he had willingly shielded her from Monokuma at the rick of his life not once, but twice. Fuyuhiko watched his childhood friend Peko and clenched his fist to the point that it bled. Kazuichi alone had never formed a strong bond to anyone, but he too felt the sadness that came from the three. And he looked upon me with worry and sadness, because he knew that even if my friends woke up, the most important person to me never will. Because she was just an AI, an AI who found a heart.

* * *

Naegi and the others left, and we patiently waited for our friends to wake. Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, but we were finally rewarded. The pod's color went from red to green. The first person to wake was the impostor, and when we unsealed the pod, he woke up babbling about being stabbed. It took a while for him to come to his senses, and when he did, we realized that their avatars somehow were uploaded to their real bodies. The hope within us surged, and we waited for the next person. While the others waited, Kazuichi and I explained about what had happened and told Twogami that we knew he wasn't Togami. For a moment, he was extremely frightened, but hearing us earnestly say he was our friend, he eyes showed such relief that we were moved.

The next person to awaken was Teruteru, and he screamed about tempura while flailing about with a knife he had grabbed from a nearby table. Once he calmed down, we had to tell him about his mother's death (not telling him that it was likely that he was the one who killed her and ate her). After he cried a while, he accepted the fact bravely and vowed to live on in order to make her proud.

* * *

After that, Mahiru woke, and when she saw Fuyuhiko, she immediately broke down apologizing for his sister's death. Her overbearing nature had completely crumbled as her guilt returned to haunt her. She only rose when Fuyuhiko kneeled in front of her and explained that he had forgiven her, at which she cried even louder.

Now, Fuyuhiko paced around in front of the pod Peko was in, for she was to wake next. Finally, when the pod's light turned green, he ran to the pod and unsealed it, despite our shouts of caution. Peko opened her eyes, and saw Fuyuhiko, and immediately sealed his mouth with a kiss. She stopped when she realized that it wasn't a dream, and started blushing and stammering. She had to be quickly stopped from committing _seppuku_ for her disrespectful actions and it was only accomplished when Fuyuhiko hugged her. Everyone around me was happy for them and I too was happy, but I couldn't help but feel a pain in my heart.

* * *

The next three woke up in quick succession, Ibuki and Hiyoko waking up, then Mikan. Mikan tearfully apologized for her actions and begged a cheerful Ibuki and raging Hiyoko for forgiveness. Ibuki immediately forgave her with her normal loud personality and roped Mikan in to listen to a whole night of her concerts, something which gave the rest of us shivers and worries that Mikan will return deaf. Hiyoko was extremely angry and was ready to hit Mikan, but Mahiru held her back and persuaded her to forgive Mikan. Of course, Hiyoko returned to her normal attitude and start abusing Mikan again, but with this comical relationship, it was in a way how they expressed their friendship.

* * *

The wait for the next two pods was filled with anticipation, with Akane and Sonia sleeping in the pod room in order to not miss it. When Nekomaru woke up, Akane truly cried, and hugged him while he was confused. In his mind, he was in the middle of battle with Gundham so it took him a while to calm down.

Gundham woke and like Akane, Sonia immediately hugged him as well. He froze at the unexpected contact, and was about to shout at the person hugging him, then he noticed the familiar golden hair and scent which he cherished, and he ended up petting her head as she continuously held him to make sure he was there. Kazuichi had a bitter expression as he watched them beside me, but I could tell he was happy that his nemesis had woken.

* * *

The last one was Nagito, and at this point, everyone was worried because Nagito never had the best of health. His long stay in the pod might have caused his body to weaken to the point that he would die after awakening.

The day he woke, Mikan had all the medical equipment ready on standby. He was immediately given a few choice drugs and put under anesthesia. When he woke up on the hospital bed, he was surprisingly calm. He glanced at his left hand with mild surprise but accepted it, because he had already known everything about Ultimate Despair. While in the Neo World, he had been extremely insincere and told many lies, but now, he truthfully said that we represented Hope with our lives.

Everyone had woken and everyone was happy. I too was happy. But there was one person I wanted to see, a person that should have woken after Nagito if circumstances had been otherwise.

* * *

We contacted Naegi to tell him about the news, and he told us he would come get us in a boat. As we waited a week for him to arrive, everyone took to playing. Ibuki and Twogami started hanging out together, and so did Mikan and Nagito. Hiyoko stuck to Mahiru as usual, and Souda and Hanamura started arguing about the point of ero. Akane was running laps with Nekomaru giving booming advice while running with her. Sonia was sitting on the beach with Gundham who was hiding his face and blushing. Everyone was having fun, but I was alone. I was waiting for someone to come, but that someone had never existed outside an electronic system. I remembered that time she and I had played on the beach and she had told me to never forget her.

Naegi arrived with the boat, and everyone was surprised, because a certain someone walked out of it. She was a pink-haired girl who wore a cat-eared hoodie and had a half-asleep expression on her face looking at me. Was it a dream? I couldn't tell, but I was already running towards her without thinking about it. She stood there waiting for me to arrive in front of her out of breathe. She began to say something, but stopped when I hugged her, crushing her to my body. It felt warm and alive, and that gave me hope. And that hope bloomed when she whispered into my ear.

"I'm back, Hinata-kun."

How is she standing here in front of me? How was her body so warm? Chiaki smiled) and told me to remember that the goal of the Neo World was to upload the avatar into their living body. In other words, she was uploaded into a body cloned to be her, she explained. But her data was destroyed in the Neo World. How did she survive.

"Hinata-kun, every expert gamer knows to save as much as possible. As an AI i had more insight into the Neo World, and so I was able to preserve my data and everyone elses in case of an emergency. I couldn't reveal it because Monokuma took control as the administartor, but I was able to hide pockets of data thoughout the Neo World. I am the Ultimate Gamer after all."

* * *

There was a party that night as the boat sailed to wherever the Future Foundation had their base. Everyone made a ruckus, with Gundham and Kazuichi having a showdown and Teruteru being chased by Hiyoko and Mahiru holding skewers. And Chiaki stood next to me smiling at the antics of our friends. I was holding her hand, because I was afraid that if I let her go, she would disappear again. And she didn't mind it.

"Hey, hey, Hinata-kun, remember that time when we were talking about the animals, and we talked about what warmth meant? I was afraid, of touching someone, because of the things that come from it, repulsion, anticipation, whatever… But I feel that if it is you, I can touch you and learn what this warmth means… I think… So, can I continue staying by your side?"

Could this be real? Is she saying what I think she is saying?

"Are you saying you want to… go out with me?"

Chiaki thought for a long moment, then nodded.

"Yes, I always felt that if this was a game, you would have triggered all my flags. You always knew exactly what I wanted, like those game consoles, and you taught me things that I never understood before. And now, I want to continue learning from you, I want you to be the one to teach me everything. During that time at the beach, I told you the one genre I was bad in."

"Dating Sims."

"Yes, I mentioned that I know how babies are made, but I don't know how to fall in love. But maybe I just didn't know how to recognize what love was. I feel like now I do. When you are holding my hand, I feel a different warmth than when I hold someone else's'. My heart beats fast, like your heart did when we were in the storage room. If this is love… that would mean that I love you… I think."

Could this be happening? I feel like bursting into a million pieces and being thrown into a grinder then frozen into a human again. Electric was running through me all the way to the longest point in my hair, and I felt like I could do anything. And I remembered there was something I had been unable to say to her. Now, perhaps I would have the courage to say it. I held her hand and spoke three simple words.

"I love you."

**And they kissed. The End.**


End file.
